1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns tubular hand held and convenience snack food products comprising potato shreds. In a preferred embodiment, the product comprises cylindrically shaped hollow casings comprising potato shreds and savory fillings, such as meats, cheeses or other processed dairy products, flavorings, spices, sauces and the like or combinations of savory fillings. The snack food is formed, cooked by frying, baking, par-frying, par-baking or combinations thereof, or otherwise, and then frozen. The product can be reconstituted by re-heating through conventional means, such as heating in an oven, toasting in a conventional residential toaster or toaster oven, or by microwave cooking. In a preferred embodiment, two or more ropes are connected through an axial indented ridge type connector to make a convenience snack food product with pull apart functionality.
The casing comprises potato shreds, starch, preferably modified starch, and cellulose gum. The potato shreds can be either fresh cut, dehydrated or combinations of fresh cut and dehydrated. The cellulose gum and starch independently interact with the potato shreds, and other ingredients of the casing, to support a potato shred matrix with a film on exposed surfaces and fill voids in the matrix at the exposed surfaces of the casing which allows the casing to be extruded and maintain its shape. This is particularly important when the casing is extruded in the form of hollow continuous ropes, to maintain the center core, axial cavity, during and after extrusion.
The gum, starch and potato shreds form a structural matrix, and the gum and starch form a film around the outer shell of the casing. The film serves a number of functions including providing a moisture barrier to regulate fat pick-up during frying of the product and to inhibit fat from leaching during reconstitution. The casing has the texture of processed hash brown potato patties that enhances product acceptability.
The invention also relates to methods for making the tube shaped snacks. The method comprises mixing potato shreds, either fresh cut, reconstituted dehydrated shreds or combinations thereof, with other ingredients, including starch and cellulose gum. The mixture is extruded through a nozzle or multiple nozzles, to form one or two or more continuous ropes on a conveyor system. The continuous ropes can be solid, or in the preferred embodiment, hollow (i.e. with an axial cavity, as in a tube). When filling is desired, the filling can be either extruded into the axial cavity defined by the inner walls of the hollow continuous rope, such as co-extrusion in the casing, or injected into the axial cavity. The continuous ropes can be physically moved together to form co-joined continuous ropes to obtain two or more ropes in an axial side-by-side arrangement which can be cut to a desired lengthwise size. After two or more ropes are arranged side-by-side, the product can be compressed. When two or more ropes are connected an axial indented ridge type connector is formed lengthwise along adjacent ropes. The axial indented ridge type connector provides the product with pull apart functionality. As such, when two or more continuous ropes are connected to form the product, the ropes can be broken apart at the axial indented ridge type connector without causing the casing around the filling to break or lose significant structure.
2. The Related Art
Hand held convenience snack foods having a filling surrounded by a casing typically have casings made from bakery formulas involving pastry dough. Bakery formulas generally involve grains and flours and the pastry dough tends to be homogenous which is both easy to form by extrusion or other means, or otherwise easy to fill. An example is cereal bar mixes made with pastry dough comprising multi-grains, and although these materials tend to have coarser grains compared to other pastry dough ingredients, the particles have substantial uniformity thus facilitating extrusion and filling.
Potato shreds are nonuniform and have bigger and longer particle size compared to grains and flours. As a result, dough comprising potato shreds lacks uniformity and is more difficult to handle and extrude. Dough comprising potato shreds will have the tendency to form open surfaces after extrusion or during the forming or filling process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,856 describes hash brown type potato products made from de-hydrated formed or fabricated potato shreds which can be re-hydrated and formed into patties said to simulate fresh cut potato products. The re-hydrated mass has a moisture content of 40% to 55% so that the product can be sheeted with a 1 to 2 millimeter opening between sheeting rolls. The potato dough made from the shreds described in this patent cannot be extruded because of needed high extrusion pressures which are said to rupture a significant portion of the potato cells. Non-critical ingredients for these products are carboxymethylcellulose, which is said to be a processing aid for the sheeting operation, and certain food gums to reduce fat or oil pickup (uptake) during frying. U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,704 describes a process for making potato strands comprising shreds for use in hash brown potatoes, and re-hydration of the shreds in the form of sheets to make a hash brown potato product is exemplified in the patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,596 describes potato mixtures shaped by extrusion or otherwise that are processed as a reduced fat flash frozen potato product. The formed potato shapes are made from blended potato pieces, and the blended product contains small pieces and, thus, not potato shreds. U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,062 describes dehydrated granular products, such as crushed dehydrated potatoes, containing some aggregates of individual cells, re-hydrated at low temperature in the presence of cellulose ether thermal gelling agent and extruded to obtain a french fried potato product.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,549 describes agglomerated dehydrated potato products made from dehydrated potato particles that, after re-hydration with a binder, are extruded to form french fries. The binder may be either a gum, such as guar gum, or free starch from modifying the potato solids. U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,210 describes an extruded french fried potato product comprising dehydrated potatoes in the form of flakes, granules, flour, diced pieces or mixtures thereof with a binder comprising more than about 25% amylose starch. The starch is said to retrograde when heated with water to form a film around the product and provide an oil barrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,673 describes extruded french fried potato products comprising dehydrated mashed potatoes, methyl cellulose and polygalacomannan gum, which are said to be essential ingredients. The combination of ingredients reportedly provide the product with an irregular external crust which permits the product to pick up a modest amount oil during frying. U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,699 addresses an application of a hydrocolloid coating to potato strips to provide an exterior crust when the strips are blanched or par-fried which may also retard oil adsorption into the potato strip. U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,727 concerns use of low molecular weight ionic hydrocolloid compositions to make film to reduce oil uptake. U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,688 concerns immersion of potato into a batter comprising sodium alginate for moisture control, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,573 concerns batter comprising hydroxypropyl methylcellulose which is said to function as an oil barrier.
Fat absorption/uptake of fried foods is one of the major concerns of consumers, particularly with respect to dietary concerns as fat provides approximately 9 calories per gram to the food. Also, fat leaching from a prepared product during re-heating or reconstituting causes a greasy feel to food, and imparts undesirable organoleptic qualities to the food.
An object of the invention is to make a hand held convenience snack food product that comprises a casing with potato shreds that can be extruded and filled and then partially or fully fried or baked without significant excess oil absorption during cooking and without oil or fat leaching during reconstitution. An object of the invention is also an extrudable casing comprising potato shreds that has structural integrity which can withstand the extrusion and filling process, and other processing to axially join outer walls of two or more tubular casings in a snack food. These objectives are achieved by the unique potato shred matrix of the casing and the selection of cellulose gums which, with starch, forms a film on the exposed surfaces of the casing filling the voids in the potato shred matrix on exposed surfaces, which strengthens the matrix and inhibits oil/moisture transmission. These objectives are further achieved by the incorporation of an axial indented ridge type connector between adjacent attached casings.
The invention provides for an extruded baked or fried product comprising potato shreds wherein the integrity of the shreds is maintained despite the extrusion process. The cellulose gums and starch form a film around the exposed surfaces of the potato shred casing filling the voids at the exposed surfaces of the casing. As such, the casing maintains its shape during and after extrusion and the film helps control both oil pick-up during cooking and oil or fat leaching when the product is reconstituted. The moisture content is also important to processability as the moisture content of the casing, about 55% to about 75%, preferably about 60% to about 72%, facilitates extrusion and regulates oil uptake during cooking.
In the present Specification, all parts and percentages are by weight/weight unless otherwise specified.
The hand held and convenience tubular shaped snack products are formed from a single, or two or more, continuous ropes, that are either hollow or solid. In the preferred embodiment, the casing is hollow and cylindrical shaped having an inner wall, outer wall and an axial cavity defined by the inner wall, which can be filled with a variety of savory fillings, such as meats, cheeses, or other processed dairy products, flavorings, spices, sauces and the like, or combinations of these. The continuous ropes are formed by extrusion and two or more continuous ropes can be axially joined, and an axial indented ridge type connector lengthwise along adjacent ropes provides the product with pull apart functionality. In one aspect of the invention, a plurality of ropes are connected axially and radially cut to a lengthwise size to accommodate reconstitution, e.g., re-heating, in a conventional residential toaster or toaster oven. When the ropes are cut the casing is crimped to form ends of potato shred casing material which seals the filling within the axial cavity and the ends.
The continuous ropes (e.g. casings) comprise potato shreds and are formed by extrusion. The potato shreds can be fresh cut or dehydrated, or a combination of fresh cut and dehydrated. The casing further comprises cellulose gum and starch, preferably modified starch, which form a film and fill voids in the potato shred matrix at the exposed surfaces of the casing, and serves to facilitate a stable potato shred matrix and provides a fat/moisture barrier for the casing material. Cellulose gums useful for the casing are microcrystalline cellulose, methylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose, hydroxyethylcellulose, hydroxypropylcellulose, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose or combinations thereof. The matrix is critical to the mechanical properties of the product and, together with the moisture content of the extruded casing, allows for extrusion of the casing with sufficient structural support, particularly when the casing is extruded in hollow form so that the casing material will not collapse into the axial cavity. The film regulates moisture loss during frying to control fat uptake, and also retards fat from leaching from the product during reconstitution. The snack product can be reconstituted by a number of means, including oven cooking, microwave cooking and heating in a conventional residential toaster or toaster oven. Leaching of fat during preparation would result in a greasy texture to the outer surface of the casing and poor organoleptic qualities: Thus, the matrix and film formed by the interaction of the gum and starch and potato shreds provide for an organoleptically acceptable product with a hash brown like texture and, particularly in the methods of toaster or toaster oven preparation, a product that will not undesirably leach oil or fat during re-heating or reconstitution.
The casing can comprise dehydrated potato shreds, fresh cut potato shreds or combinations thereof. When dehydrated potato shreds are used, the casing comprises about 20% to about 24% dehydrated potato shreds, about 3% to about 10% dried potato flakes, about 1% to about 4% starch, about 0.5% to about 2% flavorings, about 0.5% to about 2% sweetener, preferably dextrose, about 0.5% to about 2.5% cellulose gum and about 55% to about 75% water, preferably about 60% to about 72%. When fresh cut potato shreds are used, the casing comprises about 75% to about 95% fresh cut potato shreds, which may be moisture adjusted (e.g. dehydrated) to a moisture content of about 55% to about 75%, preferably about 60% to about 72%, about 3% to about 10% dried potato flakes, about 1% to about 4% starch, about 0.5% to about 2% flavorings, about 0.5% to about 2% sweetener, preferably dextrose, and about 0.5% to about 2.5% cellulose gum. Potato shreds as discussed herein are rectangular shaped potato pieces of random axial length, preferably up to about 76 millimeters, and a cross section of from about 6.4 millimeters to about 2.5 millimeters by about 3.2 millimeters to about 6.4 millimeters, preferably about 4.0 millimeters to about 2.5 millimeters by about 4.8 millimeters, and may be in dehydrated form.
The ingredients of the casing are mixed together and then the mixture is extruded through a nozzle or multiple nozzles to obtain one, or two or more cylindrically shaped ropes. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the casing is extruded in hollow form, (i.e. tube like, having an axial cavity) and then filling is either co-extruded with the casing or injected into the axial cavity. Multiple nozzles can be used which. result in an array of two or more ropes extruded onto a moving conveyor. As the ropes move on the conveyor, the ropes physically move together, either through the movement of the conveyor or by physical means such as guides or wedges, and become connected at adjacent axial portions of outer walls of the casings to form a tube shaped snack food comprising two or more axially connected ropes. A rollover operation may be employed which involves moving the continuous ropes under one or more rollers that compress the ropes as desired. An axial indented ridge type connector having a radial width of about 2 to about 12 millimeters is formed along adjacent outer walls of the ropes thereby making co-joined ropes as a result of only a portion of outer walls of adjacent casings becoming attached. The axial indented ridge type connector provides the product with pull apart functionality, and adds rigidity to the casing of the overall product comprising two or more ropes. The ropes can then be cut radially to a desired length, to accommodate the method of preparation and size of equipment, (e.g. oven, microwave oven, toaster, etc.) for reconstitution, and the ropes are crimped at the time they are cut to form ends of potato shred casing material which seals the filling within the axial cavity and ends.
The cutting and crimping of the continuous ropes results in uncooked cut casings which are then cooked by frying or baking, including par-frying or par-baking and then frozen. The product can be reconstituted or reheated by means, such as a toaster, toaster oven or oven, or by microwave heating. The gum and starch provide a film around the casing which in part, inhibits the leaching of oil from the product during reconstitution thereby providing the product with acceptable organoleptic properties and texture, and reduced undesired greasy feel and, thus, the product has particular utility for hand held consumption. The gum and film also serves to enhance the structural support of the casing.
The process allows significant variation in product dimensions, particularly axial length, to accommodate differences in equipment sizes for re-heating and for future modifications by equipment manufacturers. The ability to vary the size of the product also allows for products to meet particular consumer choices. For example, the product can be cut to an axial length of about 8.5 centimeters to about 11 centimeters for current conventional toasters or toaster ovens, or could be cut longer for oven preparation or smaller to make a single serving pieces or hors d""oeuvres. The thickness is determined by the extrusion parameters and the roll over operation, the length is determined by cutting and the width is a function of the number of ropes axially attached together.